


nayaki

by weaslayyy



Category: Baahubali (Movies)
Genre: F/M, au baahubali1
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2018-12-05 08:41:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11574489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weaslayyy/pseuds/weaslayyy
Summary: Avantika falls down a waterfall, meets a boy and saves the world.





	1. prologue

**Author's Note:**

> au of baahubali 1 where avantika is allowed to be the main character and explore her potential as god intended. also, shivudu respects women.

Avantika is 23 years of age and 18 years into her service the day she falls down a waterfall. 

She is the latest of a long line of soldiers allowed to seek the highest fulfillment of their mandate -- as is traditional, she is also the only one still alive. Avantika is young, the youngest soldier ever allowed to make their attempt, but that does not change the fact that she is stronger, faster, more adept at slitting throats than any rebel before. She is the first of what will later be known as the lost generation of Kuntala, taught to love the soil of a land she has never seen, allegiance bound to the memory of a woman she has never met. 

The struggle is all she has ever known. 

She expects the men to come for her and fights with the ease of a lifetime. Avantika thrusts, parries, jabs, slices her way through armor and bone in a daze, letting them lead her through the forest she had thought she knew as well as the gleam of her sword. There are ten of them, and when their weapons find her she does not feel hurt. Every blow is glanced off, every cut matched in a more lethal space until there is only one left standing, one more between her and the path that will lead to--

He steps towards her, once, twice, thrice and kicks viciously at a leg she had not realized was bleeding from an arrow embedded deeply in her left thigh. She stumbles backwards, raising her sword instinctively to slice at the throat that should be exposed from this angle when suddenly the forest slips into the water that spells her demise. 

When she falls, Avantika does not think of herself. She does not think of her fellow soldiers, their cave, or even of the Kuntala whose lush green hills and flowing rivers she will never be able to see. When Avantika falls she brings up an image of Rani Devasena, captive in the center of the enemy’s stronghold today as she has every day of the last 25 years. It is one she has been fed from the moment she was born, this burning, breaking symbol of every Kuntalan’s plight. 

Avantika thinks about breaking her chains.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i didnt think this would happen but apparently i write baahubali fanfiction now so that's a thing. huge thank you to avani who betaed this, approved the vague outline i messaged her in the middle of the night and continues to respond to all of my messages no matter how many of them i send in a row at inconvenient hours of both day and night. (we've known each other for 5 days.) if you would also like to receive scream messages about baahubali aus or canon you can find me at parlegee on tumblr. 
> 
> please comment bc i thrive off of attention good and bad and also if you have ideas for what you want to see in this im very willing to incorporate ur thoughts. i have very vague plans for how this goes so please help me out. thank you!! 
> 
> also to user philthestone if u read this fic u need to message me i want to be the one who tells you about the flying swan boat that goes thru the horse clouds.


	2. the one where avantika wakes up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> avantika opens her eyes, meets shivudu and realizes she's alive.

“It’s kind of a miracle you’re here, you know. No one else has been able to do it. Except me, of course, but that doesn’t really count, does it?”

The voice is the first thing Avantika awakens to, and that coupled with the darkness is enough to tighten every muscle in her body. She knows she is dead, but considering the ways of the world she was born into, it would not surprise her to know that death too is another battlefield to be crossed. 

She opens her eyes and tries to jump, blindly reaching for something, anything to swing -- one good hit is usually enough to stun, if not outright kill, depending on weight. Simultaneously she is aware of two things. One: she is in a debilitating amount of pain. Two: she is being held down by perhaps the most attractive man she has ever met. 

She screams. 

“Hey! No need for panic, you’re alright! Or, you aren’t alright now but you will be!” The man smiles, and Avanthika, who has not reacted to pain since the age of five, grits her teeth. “It really isn’t all that bad, especially considering you fell from the top of the waterfall. I’ve wrapped most of your injuries and applied some poultices on your cuts so you should be feeling better in a few weeks. Maybe a month for perfect condition.” 

Perfect condition. Avanthika blinks. She hadn’t thought to consider that she might be _alive_.

“Where am I?” The words snag against the ragged edges of her throat, and the man winces in sympathy before lifting a small pot of water to her mouth. It tastes -- Avanthika has never tasted water like this before, but a small voice in her head says that it is as she imagined Kuntala’s water would taste, clear and sweet. 

“You’re in our village. I found you amongst some trees that broke your fall and brought you back to my home to heal.” He pauses, hesitant, before his mouth sets and his eyes harden. “The men you fought will not find you.” 

Avantika is a soldier, but she has lived in hiding all her life. “What men?” 

The corner of his lip lifts, and he lifts his hand above the place on her thigh that was pierced by enemy steel, moving to hover over the slashes on her arms, the ache of her cheekbone she now remembers met the butt of a sword.

“Rocks and trees do not cut to the bone, my lady. The waterfall did not spare you, but let us not pretend you were in perfect condition before you met.” 

She laughs, taking a vicious pleasure in the ache of her ribs because that means she is alive. Alive, alive, alive, and the man tending to her is beautiful, alive, alive, alive, another day has passed with Rani Devasena in the commons of Mahishmati.

Alive. Avantika lives, and thus so does her mandate. She looks for her wrist, turning her head wildly when she can’t see the blood red of her amulet. 

“Are you looking for the bracelet? Here!I had to take it off to apply the bandage but I can tie it over if you want. My name is Shivu, by the way. You should probably know that if you’re going to live here for a month.” 

The weight of string and one stone is nothing, compared to the armor Avantika has worn, the stones she has moved, the chains of Rani Devasena.  When Shivu re-ties her Amulet something settles amongst Avantika’s shoulders again, realigning them into a position she hadn’t realized she had softened out of. She tries to move, to see if she can struggle into a position that will let her walk, that will let her run the miles between her and the queen. 

She looks again at the man, Shivu, all bright eyes and soft hair she has never been allowed to admire. At her bandages, masking the aches that render her useless to her cause. 

A month. 

“Take it off please ” she says, waving her right hand feebly. “I don’t think I need it now.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you to everyone whose been reading and reviewing!! I really appreciate all of your love and thoughts and i hope this first /real/ chapter is as good as you hoped! im going to try posting around this time every week, so that would be around my friday evening but i will admit that i'm not good at all at keeping deadlines. i'm trying to write at least 2 chapters ahead just to give myself a buffer, but we'll see how this ends up. again, if you have any storyline ideas hit me up @ parlegee on tumblr. 
> 
> THANK YOU!! PLEASE LEAVE UR THOUGHTS BELOW I LOVE YOU!!!
> 
> (yes all the chapters are going to be named like friends im lazy)


	3. the one where they talk (1.0)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> shivu begins to nurse avanthika back to health

The next morning is as strange as one Avanthika has ever experienced. She wakens far after the sun has risen for the first time she can remember, and within five minutes Shivu has come with a pot of water and a neem twig to brush her teeth. She raises her hand to take the stick but he rolls his eyes and kneels next to her, ignoring her blushes as he brushes her teeth. 

She tells him that she is not so weak as to not be able to lift her own toothbrush, but there is a sharp pain that splinters through her arms if she tries to curl her palms. She allows him to lift the pot of water to her mouth again, and makes no comment when he rests his other arm against her back, a steady weight to lean on as she sips. 

As a soldier, even as a child of the Rebellion, Avantika has no memory of this type of simple affection that Shivu gives her, a stranger so easily. Her parents were amongst the first to be martyred, and no one else would have dared go against the strictures of the cause. When Shivu has finished feeding her a simple stew with his hands, her upper body propped against the wall of the hut by every pillow he owns, she expects him to leave. Caring for invalids was always the lowest of priorities in the Rebellion, and there is nothing Avantika needs that would supercede what Shivu must usually do when not rebinding her wounds.

Instead, he washes his hands and comes back to his place at her side, sitting cross legged and raising his eyebrows at the look on her face. 

“I can’t leave you!” And yes, the very thought seems to offend him. Strange.

“I can amuse myself, you know.” Every child was taught how to play strategy games alone in their minds in case of capture or simple boredom. 

“You’re the first outsider I’ve met -- maybe I want  _ you  _ to amuse  _ me! _ ” 

Avanthika raises an eyebrow, trying to hide her growing unease. Tribal villages are often isolated, but for her to be the first outsider must mean she is further away than she thought. “I find that hard to believe.” 

He shrugs a shoulder. “The waterfall is a pretty effective barrier. Every outsider I’ve ever seen has been dead.” 

“So to get back...” Avantika tries to remember her fall, but all she gets are flashes of water, rocks, vines, a jungle. Enough to convince her it was a lengthy trip. 

“You would have to climb the waterfall, yes.”  Shivu smirks. “It’s never been done before, though not for a lack of trying.”  

The unease has blossomed into a many limbed creature inhabiting the bottom of her stomach. She steels herself, recalls the image of Devasena in chains, Devasena taunted by the tyrant king, Devasena seen daily by common citizens who ignore her plight or worse, laugh. 

She’s about to ask for more details of past climbing expeditions when a man barrels through the doorway and skids to a halt near her feet. 

“They’re fighting again,” he announces, body turned towards Shivu as he sinks to the ground. “They promise they’ll follow your verdict, but no one else’s. Shivu, I think they’ll come to blows this time.” 

The man finally notices her and stops, body jolting back as if her presence had the effect of a punch. His eyes follow the path of her body from her legs to her eyes before shifting quickly to Shivu sitting, smile shifted into a frown for the first time as he closes his eyes and pinches his nose. 

“I thought we had moved past this point,” he mutters and there is something in his voice that reminds Avantika of the rock she used as a practice dummy once -- strong and unmovable. Certain of its place in the universe. 

“We all did,” the man replies, rolling his eyes. “Well, except them, I suppose.” 

Shivu rises, fists clenching tightly once before releasing. He turns to Avantika. “There’s ....a problem, amongst some of the villagers, and they’ve asked me to mediate. I’ll return as soon as possible.” 

Avantika turns her head slightly, though no one realizes this but Shivu. “Why do they listen to you?” 

To his credit Shivu blushes, bashful for the first time. “I wouldn’t know, but I’m glad they do.” 

A bellow interrupts the silence that briefly settles, jolting Shivu and the other villager into action. They move across the hut and bend to cross the threshold. Avantika knows that curiosity is unbecoming of a soldier, but this time alone should be used for planning. If she is going to be the first person to climb the waterfall successfully she has to understand what she’s up against.

“Shivu,” she calls out, and he turns. “Who was it that climbed the waterfall and failed? Would it be possible for me to talk to them?” 

For a moment he seems stunned, but then the smirk from before spreads slowly, like butter melting in the sunlight across his face. Somehow, she knows the answer before he speaks. 

“Me of course.” He waves. “And I’ll be back soon enough.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please leave your thoughts below (i promise to reply to all the previous comments its just been a wild week ive read them all and treasured ur input) 
> 
> tell me especially how you think this dynamic is working out bc i dont want it to be too ooc so its a very fine line im trying to walk and i'd appreciate any input you have into how shivu and avantika are individually and together.
> 
> thanks for reading and have a great day!!!!


	4. the one where avantika climbs (and falls)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> someone took "if at first you don't succeed..." a little too much to heart

Three days later when Avantika can close her hands without whimpering and stand without feeling her knees buckle she decides it is time to leave. A month of recovery is a month longer of captivity for the Queen, and Avantika knows that she would never forgive herself the time spent being taken care of while Devasena stands in chains. 

She will fulfill her mandate, or die trying. At this moment, even Avantika knows the second is more likely than the first. 

The morning she leaves is warm, the birds beginning to sing as the sun’s rays paint the sky. Avantika rises and spends ten minutes staring at Shivu who sleeps peacefully beside her, trying to reconcile the weight she feels expanding inside her chest with what she knows she must do. 

Kindness is something she knows in the context of transaction: a comrade lets her sleep in after a training injury, and Avantika knows to pass her an extra share of rice at the next meal. Someone will clean her uniform on a busy day, and Avantika leaves a pot of muscle relaxant next to their sleeping area. Shivu saved her, pulled her from death and wrapped her wounds, has fed her with his own hands and dragged a washcloth all along her skin with his eyes closed so that she could feel clean again. 

He has asked for nothing except perhaps her company, and even this is something Avantika cannot give. She wavers, standing next to the shelf he has placed her amulet, debating whether she could spend just a few more days, perhaps clean his cottage or stitch a new shirt to assuage her guilt.

The image of Devasena convinces her she cannot. Avantika ties the amulet, grabs her sword and steps across the threshold. 

As she walks, Avantika realizes that this is the first time she’s stepped out of Shivu’s hut since her fall, the first time she’s been able to see his village. The huts resemble the ones of every other villager in the region but that’s where the similarities end. Contraptions dot the landscape, tethered to trees and wells in order to gather food and water. She sees the beginnings of a fishing net hanging off the side of someone’s porch and teeming baskets of wildflowers waiting to be woven into garlands near another. 

There is a certain weight she can feel in the very air, something soft that settles inside her lungs. A feeling of safety and security -- more than that Avantika knows somehow that this village is one that has never known the crushing force of Mahishmati’s fist, has never had to sacrifice a year’s worth of grain in order to fund an army or give up their gold to put up a statue. 

Avantika thinks of herself as a child forced to destroy her fear, to struggle through days of hunger and sleeplessness in service of the cause. She wonders if -- a rooster cries at the sight of day and Avantika knows that her time is limited. Shivu will be awake soon. 

Twenty minutes later she’s reached the bottom of the waterfall and falters, her head craning as she tries to find the top, tries to see if there is a continuous thread of handholds she can use to climb. Her limbs, already worn from her slight walk scream but she has watched people die on missions far less likely to be successful. She grabs a rock, and hoists herself up.

The climb is both easier and infinitely harder than she expected. The terrain is beautiful, full of vibrant greens and the sound of rushing water that Avantika can focus on instead of her pain. She grabs vines and ties them around her waist to anchor herself, and smiles very faintly at the smell of jasmine that floats past. Perhaps, once she rescues the Queen she will be allowed this, simple pleasures in a world where a righteous woman is no longer in captivity. Avantika climbs on, ignoring the twinge in her palms in favor of imagining the look on Devasena’s face when her chains are broken, Bhalladeva’s grimace when her sword is stabbed into his stomach. She grabs another rock, staining it red with her reopened wounds and pulls herself imagining the the King’s screams before realizing that there isn’t another rock in easy reach. 

Well. She never thought this would be easy. She braces herself, closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before jumping. Her ankle, already twisted from before burns as she can hardly remember before from the effort of launching herself into the air. When she tries to find a place to latch on it finally gives out, leaving her to scramble wildly for some place to place her hands: a rock, a cranny, a branch. She can feel her skin tearing as she slides down the surface, but there’s nothing she can do until the vines do their job and suspend her long enough for her to find her bearings.

The vines break, and for the second time in five days, Avantika falls down the waterfall. 

She knows she isn’t too far up, but still the impact will probably kill her. She hopes someone realizes she is dead without needing to fetch the amulet from her corpse.  Avantika feels herself hitting something hard, and closes her eyes.

Avantika stops falling. 

“What on earth were you thinking?” Shivu is holding onto a much sturdier vine with his hand wrapped around her waist. “You could have died!” 

She opens her mouth to respond but finds she has nothing to say. Shivu is resplendent like this, hair askew and eyes brimming with power. She looks up to the arm grasping the vine and notices his muscle tight with the strength needed to hold them both. 

“Climb onto my back,” he orders, and Avantika, still dazed at her good fortune moves to follow. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im not super sure about this how much I like this chapter but i live for constructive criticism and also all forms of comments. tell me how im doing and how you feel about the direction this is going!!!!! 
> 
> thank you for reading <3 <3


	5. the one where they talk (2.0)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the sad story of devasena, who was to be queen but now is not.

The first thing Shivu does when they’ve settled back inside of his hut is offer Avantika another glass of water. She stares at the earthen cup but quickly takes it out of his hand when he motions to bring it to her lips -- needing someone to help her drink water once more would be a final indignity she is not willing to experience, not after being carried for an hour on Shivu’s back for every villager to see.

She looks up through her eyelashes to see if she can gauge his temper: Shivu has been kind, but Avantika has known many kind men who turn at the slightest inconvenience, who expect something for their efforts that she will not give. Her knife is still strapped to her waist. 

He opens his mouth, and Avantika tenses.

“What are you running towards?”

The question is so unexpected that she finds she can’t speak for a minute afterwards. Shivu nods and takes the cup from her hand and walks to the corner of the hut where he keeps the medical supplies.

“You don’t have to tell me” he says, back turned and fiddling with some cloth to bind a wound, “but it must be important if you’re climbing the waterfall in your state.”

He walks back to Avantika and sits down, motioning for her to show him her palms. She watches as he first cleans the reopened cuts with water, brushing away the grime and then applying ointment. His touch is gentle rather than the brisk methodical care she received within the rebellion. There’s a cut marring his cheek, blood just dry enough that it doesn’t drip down his face, a wound he only has because he was rescuing Avantika from her own folly.

She takes a deep breath, closes her eyes and places her faith in something other than her cause for the very first time.

“Have you heard of Queen Devasena?”

He wrinkles his brow, finally raising his head. “Who is she?”

This might be harder than she originally thought. “Do you know Mahishmati?”

Shivu shakes his head. “Is it past the waterfall?”

Of course. The realities Avantika has grown up understanding instinctively simply don’t exist here, beyond a waterfall no one can climb.

“Mahishmati is an empire, led by King Bhallaldeva. For a hundred years they ruled righteously until he ascended the throne.”

Shivu swallows, suddenly looking very uncomfortable. He shakes his head and motions for her to continue, picking up the water to clean her other palm.

“Its nothing” he says, “it just...feels familiar for some reason. I don’t know.”

Avantika hums in satisfaction. Not even a waterfall could stop the story of her queen’s plight.

“Originally my people are from Kuntala, a small kingdom that was outside the borders of Mahishmati.” She grits her teeth trying to keep down the anger that rises when she thinks of her people’s plight. “It was .... beautiful.” 

She bites her lip. “They say it was green, full of farms and rivers that overflowed with everything it’s people might need. There were flowers hanging at every door and every family was safe, protected by our king Jayavarma and his family.” Vaguely she realizes that this is might be the most she has ever spoken, but she doesn’t feel too badly. There could be no worthier topic to speak on. 

Shivu smiles, the hand holding the jug growing lax enough that it almost falls out of his hand. “It sounds lovely,” he says. “Why did you leave?” 

“I didn’t,” Avantika says shortly, waving off the question she can see forming. “The best of us all was our Crown Princess Devasena, who traveled the country to rid us of each and every one of our problems no matter the size. She was our guardian goddess, the source of our prosperity until she fell in love with the Crown Prince of Mahishmati.” 

“She married _Bhallaladeva_ ?” For some reason Shivu looks almost as nauseated at the idea as Avantika immediately feels, imagining her Queen married to her captor.

“His brother,” she chokes out, staring at the ground. “She would  _ never  _ have touched someone as evil as him. Bhallaladeva stole the throne from his brother, exiled them both to a village and then killed her husband and child, capturing Devasena before she could escape.” She shakes her head, trying to will the tears boiling in her eyes back before they could fall. “They say he wanted her, but our Queen would not forsake her love.”

Shivu shakes his head in dismay, putting down the jug and using a cloth to dry her hand before applying the medicine. “Disgusting. Where does he keep her?”

Avantika’s fingers curl into fists of their own volition, the one Shivu holds clutching at the back of his hand, nails digging into his flesh. “Every day for the past 25 years he has kept her in the center of the city, chained to an iron cage that serves as her only shelter. Every day our Queen is exposed to the elements, her body broken and bleeding as the citizens of her own nation laugh at her pain.”

When she looks up, Shivu seems almost as affected as her. His face has gone still, his jaw clenched in a mirror image of her own fury.

“That’s barbaric.” She can almost feel the heat of his eyes on her skin. “To treat any person like that, much less....”

Avantika laughs. “That’s Mahishmati. After our Queen’s capture they burned Kuntala to the ground.”

She takes a breath, imagining the trees of Kuntala set aflame by the barbarities of the Empire. “We are its last survivors, and every day since we lost our motherland it has been our goal to rescue our Queen from the clutches of the enemy. We devote our wealth, our health, everything that we are to the cause. Our strongest warriors are sent on quests to rescue Devasena, and I am the latest to have been chosen by our leader.”

There is a long silence after that. Shivu closes his eyes briefly before opening them and moving to finish his original task. He wraps her palm with the cloth that has been long crumpled in his free hand, brow pursed with more thought than she would have imagined went into such a simple task.

Avantika doesn’t know what to say -- the details of this story have been known to her and everyone around her since her childhood and she doesn’t know how someone so removed from the cruelty should react. She chooses silence, if only to use the time to watch the lines of Shivu’s back flex as he winds the fabric around her hand.

He finishes and finally looks up, head tilted with a careful expression on his face.

“The men who attacked you--” 

Avantika nods. “Mahishmati soldiers.”

“So when you climb the waterfall...”

“I will continue my mission to free Queen Devasena from her chains.” Avantika stares straight into Shivu’s eyes daring him to stop her from fulfilling her destiny, to call into question her abilities as a warrior, or even to suggest that she stay safe here in a land beyond Mahishmati’s sword.

These are all things she has been told she would encounter outside the rebellion; people who would not understand the fire that burned inside every Kuntalan each day that Devasena was kept like an animal for the amusement of her tormentors.

He nods, eyes brightening as his face finally breaks out into a soft smile. “We’ll go together, then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the comments! they sustain me (like oatmeal, if you've watched brooklyn nine nine.) like i've said before your feedback helps me improve this story and flesh out the characters within it. i appreciate your thoughts and views. 
> 
> the reason shivu gets s u p e r upset only after hearing how devasena is kept is because ... tbh what happened to her and baahu sucks but is also ... not uncommon within stories like this. fratricide is how a ton of shitty people take thrones and what i see as beyond the pale is the way bhalla keeps devasena in the cage. even ravana kept sita in the garden, so while shivu would see the arc of what happened to baahu as sad, the thing that really infuriates him is how devasena is kept in a damn cage.
> 
> shoutout to avani for helping as usual!!! 
> 
> the update was a little early today but lets not expect this type of productivity from me in the future. hope everyone liked it, and if you didnt leave a comment telling me why! <3


	6. the one with a cart, and shivu kind of starting to get back to work

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sanga kicks her son's ass in gear

Shivu does not leave Avantika’s side for the next few days. Every morning when she wakes he has already brought fruit and a cup of goat’s milk for her to drink. When she falls asleep it is to the sound of him mending shirts or organizing tins of ointment, always something gentle and domestic that she can admit to taking comfort in only at the hazy moments before she falls asleep. He tells her stories of his life during the days, of his childhood spent in the shadow of the waterfall, playing with his friends as they climbed trees and dueled with wooden sticks for joy.

Avantika tries not to compare their lives because she hasn’t decided if she regrets her upbringing.. Sometimes Shivu is silent and she tries to think of the life she might have led in Kuntala, but she is never sure if she would have enjoyed it. If she would have been a warrior as she is now, or if she might have been given to the more frivolous pursuits that Shivu describes -- neither pranks nor long skirts ever factored into the life she imagined for herself within the rebellion. 

She knows there are things that he must have to do, but every time she asks him he looks very pointedly at her wounds and changes the subject -- Avantika looks at the healing cut on the side of his cheek and does not press the topic. She thinks about bringing up his promise of aid, but she looks at his hands as he binds and rebinds her wounds and wonders if he could bring himself to kill, if the Resistance would wipe away the smile she’s come to appreciate so much and prays that he will not be too upset when she eventually sneaks away to fulfill her destiny. 

She waits for a breaking point, but as the days pass it doesn’t seem as though there will be one -- or at least, not from Shivu. 

“Alright, I’ve given you one week to sit here all holed up but it is absolutely time to get back to your work!” 

A woman steps through the threshold, of average height and build and a pleasant smile on her face. Her necklaces jangle as she walks towards Shivu and Avantika and she ruffles Shivu’s hair slightly when she reaches him. She stops and looks at Avantika, who tries not to squirm under her gaze.

The lady smiles, and Avantika’s lips quirk in response. “Well,” she says. “Aren’t you gorgeous?” 

Avantika blinks. Throughout her 23 years of life she has been complimented on her skills as a warrior, but never acknowledged as a great beauty --- admiration of one’s outer aspect encouraged soldiers to prize their bodies over their mission. Even then, Avantika is a warrior, and even she knows that a figure built for battle is not the same as a figure made for love.

Yet. “Thank you,” she says, and the lady smiles. 

“You can call me Sanga, dear. I am your Shivu’s mother, after all.”

Avantika’s eyes widen, both at the knowledge of who the woman is and her usage of the term “your Shivu.” Avantika has nothing except her cause to call her own, but here the High Chieftain of the Tribe calls her own beloved son the property of another, that too a stranger. Perhaps she prefers the Resistance after all. 

Shivu interrupts, blushing in a way that Avantika wants to explore.  “Mother,” he says exasperated, horrified and fond in a way that Avantika has never been in her life. “There is no need to scare her out of the village -- she’s already tried to escape once.”

“And it’s no wonder if you’ve just got her locked up in your hut like this!” Sanga laughs, before growing serious for the first time. 

“Shivu,” she says, and Avantika watches as Shivu’s shoulders tense. “There is no shame in taking care of the injured, but it has been a week. I won’t allow people to say that my son abandoned his duties for his own pleasure.”

“Ma!”

She smiles again, but the weight doesn’t leave her eyes. “If you keep her here any longer then that’s what they’re going to think! Get your mind out of the gutter and get back to work.”

Avantika knows that she’s missed something, but watches Shivu nod and sigh as his mother walks out of the hut. She raises an eyebrow and he shrugs, beginning to look over her wounds with a critical eye.

“Can you walk?”

Avantika pauses to think. It’s been a week, so yes, she probably can. Before she can respond Shivu rolls his eyes. 

“Without pain, I meant.” 

“I don’t understand why that should matter.”

Shivu sighs and walks out. Avantika almost feels as if she should apologize, though she has no idea what she’s done wrong. She waits for a few minutes, taking advantage of the solitude to stand and stretch and noting that the pain is manageable -- at most it is still no worse than what she felt when she had sprained her ankle and broken her wrist before her first day as cadre leader.

When he returns, Shivu looks triumphant and Avantika is immediately put on her guard. She raises an eyebrow as he blinks, caught momentarily off guard at seeing her standing but he recovers easily. 

“Lady Avantika, leader of the Kuntala Resistence....” he begins, spreading his arms and over enunciating his words like a fool. He gestures to something outside the hut and waits as she slowly makes her way, biting her lip to keep from wincing at the jolts each step sends up her legs. 

A cart sits outside, and she whips around to look at Shivu whose smile has never been so wide with devious delight. “Your chariot, my lady.”

She crosses her arms but has to work to force down the smile that threatens to rise. “No.” 

He smirks. “Yes.” 

“I can stay in your hut while you work.” 

“And fall off the waterfall the second my back is turned?” Shivu shakes his head. “I think not.”

“I can walk!” She allows a tinge of desperation to leak into her voice as she imagines being carted around Shivu’s village like a child.

“Not without pain.” He holds up his hand. “And before you say anything, wounds like yours take longer to heal if you try to do things before the proper time.” 

Avantika sighs, and somewhere in the back of her mind she notes that she has allowed more emotion in the last week than she has her entire life before. She wonders if Devasena would see it as a betrayal or if she would be more like the people of this village, raised as she was during a time of peace and plenty. 

She looks at Shivu, smiling still as he waits patiently for her to think. She knows if she presses he will let her stay in the hut, but there is something in his eyes that say he wants her to come with him, to meet his friends after spending so much time telling her about their lives. 

Avantika slowly climbs into the cart. “Come on then. I wouldn’t want your people to say that I kept you from your duty.” 

Shivu smiles, and Avantika tries to remember if she’s ever felt so content. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol i know this is so late and this has like ...... no real value in terms of the plot but at least ... it exists u know??  
> anyways please read and REVIEW i thrive off of your comments and input because they help this story move forward!!! love you all!!!


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